Elementary Preservice Teachers’ and Teacher Educators’ Perceptions of Financial Literacy Education

The authors conducted an online survey of elementary teacher education programs within a large midwestern state to assess preservice teachers’ and teacher educators’ beliefs about and preparedness to teach financial literacy. Very few preservice teachers had meaningful experiences with personal finance in high school, college, or personal decision making. No teacher educators reported ever teaching financial literacy in their higher education roles. Only 13% of teacher educators and 25% of preservice teachers thought that it was very important to teach financial literacy in elementary education. Most teacher education faculty and preservice teachers reported that they were not well qualified to use state economics standards or the JumpStart standards for financial literacy. Preservice teachers were more confident in meeting financial literacy standards than teacher educators. Both preservice teachers and teacher educators expressed openness to collaborating with other faculty members, members of the financial service industry, and parents to teach financial literacy. Follow-up phone interviews affirmed that elementary preservice teachers and teacher educators value social studies education (and financial literacy) less than reading and mathematics education. Qualitative results also suggest that elementary preservice teachers and teacher educators would like more easily accessible resources for teaching financial literacy.     

A Bayesian model for multiple change point to extremes,with application to environmental and financial data

Abrupt changes often occur for environmental and financial time series. Most often, these changes are due to human intervention. Change point analysis is a statistical tool used to analyze sudden changes in observations along the time series. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian model for extreme values for environmental and economic datasets that present a typical change point behavior. The model proposed in this paper addresses the situation in which more than one change point can occur in a time series. By analyzing maxima, the distribution of each regime is a generalized extreme value distribution. In this model, the change points are unknown and considered parameters to be estimated. Simulations of extremes with two change points showed that the proposed algorithm can recover the true values of the parameters, in addition to detecting the true change points in different configurations. Also, the number of change points was a problem to be considered, and the Bayesian estimation can correctly identify the correct number of change points for each application. Environmental and financial data were analyzed and results showed the importance of considering the change point in the data and revealed that this change of regime brought about an increase in the return levels, increasing the number of floods in cities around the rivers. Stock market levels showed the necessity of a model with three different regimes.     

What it means to be special: two sisters discuss their experiences

In this article, two adolescent sisters discuss and reflect upon the impact that the special education classification of one of them has had on their lives. The sisters, co-authors of this text, participated in designing the study and analyzing the data we produced; their voices are the core of this article. Issues about inclusion, the harms and benefits of special education classification, stigma, the multi-edged meanings of what it means to be “special,” and the often complicit roles of educators in perpetuating exclusionary policies all arise in the sisters’ discussions with each other, with their co-authors, and with pre-service teachers.     

Note From Iran: Self-Reported Elder Abuse in Qazvin, 2012

This brief report provides a first look at self-reported instances of elder abuse by a sample of people 60 years and older living in Qazvin, Iran. Six hundred community-dwelling persons, drawn from the registry files of each health center in Qazin, completed questionnaires during April to October 2012. At least 80% of the participants reported experiencing some form of psychological abuse, financial abuse, and/or neglect at least once during a 2-month period. Physical and sexual abuse were rarely reported. Despite a strong Iranian cultural emphasis on respect for elders, the self-reporting of elder abuse, especially psychological abuse, is greater than our expectation. We recommend that health-related policies and programs begin to identify elder abuse and neglect as a first step in prevention.     

高校金融学研究中的问题探讨

本文针对中国高等学校金融学理论研究存在与市场脱节的问题 ,呼请我国金融学术界 ,首先需要完成研究范畴的国际接轨和研究方法的规范化历程 ;然后对现代金融理论的体系架构、模型构造和参数设定进行认真思考、仔细研究 ,从而对中国资本市场的发展和运行进行深入分析 ,实现金融学研究的本土化和国际化。     

振兴东北老工业基地的金融支持

区域经济发展的差异与国家现行的统一的金融政策在制度安排上的不一致,构成了现行的金融政策制度与振兴东北老工业基地之间的基本矛盾。以金融结构论、金融深化论、金融约束论为代表的发展金融学,对制定振兴东北老工业基地的金融支持政策,具有重要的理论指导作用。振兴东北老工业基地金融支持的具体措施包括:发展风险投资事业;设立东北老工业基地振兴基金;组建东北振兴银行;化解银行不良资产。     

财务风险的认识及防范

对企业而言 ,由于资本结构的不同而形成的财务风险是一柄双刃剑 ,使用得当 ,它可以提高企业利润 ,增加股东财富 ;反之 ,安排欠妥 ,它会加速企业亏损甚至破产。因此掌握好有关财务风险的基本内容 ,学会如何有效地利用财务杠杆工具 ,防范财务风险 ,显得尤为重要。对财务风险的防范并非意味着去减少或消灭它 ,而是运用管理会计的思想和方法 ,加强内部管理 ,其目的是改善经营管理 ,提高经济效益。     

证券业创新的风险及其防范思路——基于美国证券工具创新的教训

席卷全球的美国金融危机暴露出来的问题说明证券业创新蕴含着巨大的风险.证券业创新对金融发展与稳定具有正面与负面双重效应,美国金融危机凸显出证券业创新的负面效应.通过对美国金融危机中证券工具创新所扮演的角色分析,揭示出了美国金融危机的生成机理.进而,基于美国的教训并结合中国国情,从资本市场的开放、宏微观政策的协调、金融监管、实体经济、治理结构、流动性风险、预警和应急机制等方面提出了防范证券业创新风险的思路与对策.     

金融发展对出口结构影响的理论探析

全球金融危机对中国的出口贸易产生严重冲击,中国对外贸易模式及出口结构的转型迫在眉睫,然而金融发展的相对落后是制约中国贸易结构调整与贸易模式转型的重要因素。文章借鉴Ju和Wei封闭情形下的基本架构,构建了两部门一般均衡分析框架,认为金融发展水平的提高能够降低企业的融资约束,进而导致资本密集型行业产品的相对价格下降,促进该行业产出乃至出口增加。因此,金融发展水平的提高会促进一国出口结构的调整与升级。     

我国中性财政政策选择解析

从一国经济的可持续发展来看,积极财政政策的实施只能是阶段性、暂时性的,随着一国经济形势的发展变化应适时适度做出相应调整,才能更加科学地调控宏观经济布局和结构,使其沿着健康、稳定的发展运行轨道前进。伴随着我国积极财政政策的连续实行,经济增长加速效应突出,国民经济领域产生了许多结构性的问题和矛盾,这迫使我国财政政策的选择有必要由扩张性向中性转移。把握积极财政政策向中性的财政政策逐步过渡的“火候”,就要充分适应经济形势的不断变化,在调控目标、调控方式、调控手段和方法组合上进行适时调整,采用更为适合我国国情的科学的宏观调控财政手段。